Title: To the Promise of Meeting Once More…

Author: Celestial Seraphim

Warning: angst, OOCness, Kagome'ness, tear-jerker, drama, etc.

Pairing: SesshomaruxKagome

Side Pairings: SangoxMiroku, InuyashaxKikyoIncarnate, (SURPRISE PAIRING)

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or any of the characters those go to their prospective owners but I'm currently in negotiations for a Sesshomaru plushie :3

Summary: She'd failed and broken her promise to him. She had all this knowledge of what would happen and yet somehow fate found it funny to give her no options but to play it out. However, after some unexpected twists there's hope to be had…if only fate didn't find it so fun to throw monkey wrenches into her path. Can she find a way of keeping her promise? Or will she unknowingly shatter his heart completely?

Author's Note: Sorry this took so long to get out guys but…MIDTERMS ARE OVER! *cackles evilly* I survived! Anyway, this is a slightly short chapter but something good happens. I figured you might like to know what's been going through Sesshie's mind anyway considering I've been focusing on Kagome these past few chapters. Hope you guys enjoy! Oh! Thank you for the reviews and being such faithful readers!

To the Promise of Meeting Once More…

*10*

Three Years prior…

Golden orbs shot open and then slammed shut as pain filtered in the taiyoukai's mind with startling clarity making his breast roar in outrage. A low growl escaped the youkai's mouth as the world seemed to tip off its axis and hurl him into an uncoordinated mess as he crashed to the ground when he attempted to stand from his bed. It felt like his head was being crushed from either side by some invisible force as images flashed through his mind. It wasn't till the pain subsided a bit that he realized what the images were and why they hurt. Sesshomaru had two sets of memories, two sets of lives he supposedly lived and a flame of hope hit him as one particular memory stuck out. Without changing his clothes or listening to his new assistants questions the taiyoukai rushed out the hotel room. Ignoring the fact he shouldn't be using any youki since this was a totally different time the ex-lord gathered his ki around him and an orb formed around him instantly. In a flash he was at a private hospital he'd apparently owned and ignored the greetings he received from the staff as he sped towards a specific ward. Throwing open the doors he ignored the shocked gazes of the nurses in favor of staring at the female on the bed he never thought he'd see again previously. One of the nurses, a demoness, approached him with a worried look as she asked worriedly,

"Sesshomaru-sama? Is everything okay?"

Gold eyes traced the somewhat older but still young features of the one person he'd thought of as his own and spoke just barely above a whisper, "Everything...is better than okay."

Looking at the girl in a coma that was Rin and examining the new strange memories he had the previous western Lord couldn't help but think 'Kagome...what did you do?'

(OoO)

Three years later…

The previous Lord of the West had taken to doing his work in Rin's hospital room, reassuring himself that she did exist and it was not a dream. He fought to sort out the two different memories he had and not for the first time he wished he had Ito here to help him sort them out. From his second set of memories he knew that at some point the tension between him and Nala had become too much and like any mate, he resigned from his position as to not be bias towards his Lord as well as longtime friend. He realized his original set of memories stopped a month or so after Kagome's leaving back to the past. He vaguely wondered what the girl had done to make this come about and why could he remember both sets of memories. However, what got to him the most, haunted his dreams and turned them into nightmares was the new memories of Kagome's death. Where this time he could see her dying and being unable to do anything but shield himself from the blast of her powers going supernova. He could still remember her agonized face and voiceless scream as the power ripped through her.

"Sesshomaru-sama?"

The taiyoukai looked up and nodding his head slightly at the nurse who wordlessly asked permission to approach the bed. From his new memories he knew her name was Mei and one of the very few humans that new of youkai existence…because she was a miko or at least had sufficient miko powers. However, instead of fearing youkai and wanting to kill them she was more interested in trying to help the few that actually were trying to do good things with their long lives. It was how they met and how she'd come to help him take care of a comatose Rin. She hummed softly as she set to work on checking Rin over and for a second the taiyoukai felt his lips quirk up at the very Kagome thing before brushing it off. He huffed softly making her look his way and give him a questioning look and he hesitated, suddenly wanting to tell her everything and why he had suddenly changed on them.

"What is it?"

Dark eyes watched him intently and her voice had a soft lilt to it both things that made her so different from Kagome yet her personality was almost identical to the girl. Sometimes he wondered if this woman was her reincarnation or if it was just the time they'd grown up in. "Is there a way to beat fate?"

Mei blinked before slowly taking the seat beside him and looking at him with a considering look. "I suppose…not without help tough."

Golden eyes turned towards the girl-woman in the bed and wavered before he said, "What if one had the help of the Kamis?"

This times Mei frowned and she asked softly, "Sesshomaru-sama what is it? Why are you asking these things?"

A part of him wavered, the part that still hurt after her departure refused to cling to that little flicker of hope. "Because if my ward could come back from the dead then can a woman that was killed by her own power come back as well?"

The woman leaned back in her hair, surprised by the amount of emotion in this youkai's voice. The Sesshomaru Taichou she remembered was distant and efficient but the man in front of her was hurting and grasping for straws. "I don't understand, Sesshomaru-sama…your daughter was never dead. Just…in a coma."

Golden eyes flickered towards her and a mirthless chuckle pushed past his lips and he leaned forward, running a hand over his face tiredly. He was quiet for a while and Mei got a glimpse of the distant but regal man she'd come to know over the years. However, suddenly he looked tired and frumpy as he looked at Rin on the bed. He looked like a father worrying over his daughter and Mei smiled slightly at that.

"It's so much different…"

Mei almost didn't catch the statement but when she did, the woman frowned in confusion. "What do you mean?"

Sesshomaru looked at her closely before he said, "This time…it's so much more different. I don't know if I'm supposed to have these two sets of memories but…I know things have changed."

Mei tried to follow the conversation but she was having a hard time. Shaking her head to let her confusion be known she said, "Wait, I'm not getting it. What do you mean 'this time'?"

Clawed hands ran through silver locks before he tried again. "I have two separate sets of memories. My original memories and my memories of now. It lets me know things were changed…drastically."

The woman's eyes grew wide in shock. If what he said was true…she didn't know what to think. She'd never known it was even possible to have memories of two separate time lines. "Why would things change so drastically?"

His golden eyes found Rin again and frowned, "She did it…somehow she did or said something when she spoke to the Kamis and this was the outcome."

Mei glanced at Rin and asked, "Your daughter?"

He grimaced, a look Mei had never seen on his handsome face, before he spoke again. "No…The woman who had died in my youth. Before she died she went to speak with the kamis…I don't know about what or what the outcome was but…it changed things in this time and gave me my daughter back."

The woman vaguely remembered Sesshomaru vaguely mentioning another woman as a reason to turn down her feelings for him. She was quiet for a while and tried to imagine what this woman was like that she went through so much for him. "What was she like?"

Sesshomaru closed his eyes at the almost identical question that Kagome had asked at one time. "She was…life."

He turned golden eyes towards Mei taking in her black hair that was a shade to light, dark eyes that weren't blue and a harder angled face compared to Kagome's heart shaped one. She looked nothing like the Shikon Miko but the sparkle behind her eyes and the way she cocked her head to the side just slightly was much like the miko, even her personality was similar. "She was a lot like you…"

Mei blinked in surprise but before she could say anything his phone rang and he was back in business mode. She watched the youkai walk out of the room and sighed softly as she looked back towards the little girl on the bed. As long as she'd known the taiyoukai and that was soon coming into its fourth year, she'd never seen him so…emotional save for when one of the nurses had almost taken Rin off life support. However, she wondered if what he said was true then just how much was changed and if it was a possibility the girl still lived. Frowning, she stood up and took out her phone as she walked out the room as she dialed a number. After three rings someone finally picked up and she spoke,

"Ne…I need you to find someone for me."

TBC…